The University of Colorado School of Medicine is adopting a new approach to training doctors, The Denver Post reported. Rather than brief stints in each specialty exclusively — the common practice in the U.S. — its students concurrently train in multiple specialties.
Most medical schools have students train under one specialty for a few weeks before rotating to another one. At the Aurora, Colo.-based school, an aspiring physician might be placed in pediatrics on Mondays, internal medicine on Tuesdays, and so on.
The sustained immersion throughout a hospital or health system aims to eliminate the fragmentation in clinical experiences, according to the school's website.
The model, called longitudinal integrated clerkship, requires students to select a panel of 15 patients to follow for a year from select areas, such as those nearing end of life or those receiving obstetric care.
It is the first medical school in the nation to fully transition to this education model. The university launched the model in 2014 and has steadily expanded it since then, according to the Post.
With the patient's permission, students receive notifications if the patient is hospitalized or visits an emergency department. By working across different departments simultaneously, students are exposed to the overlapping care continuum.
For example, a former surgery patient might be a future obstetric patient, which can lead to increased empathy and patient-centeredness, according to Jennifer Adams, MD, the school's assistant dean of medical education.
"In the old model, they saw people at their sickest," Abraham Nussbaum, MD, assistant dean of the school and chief education officer at Denver Health, told the news outlet. "In the new model, they get to see people get well."